Prompt 1: Charge your day with creative daily routine

"The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine"

- Mike Murdock

There are those days, especially in the winter (when most of the days are short and dark) that you think: “I just don’t feel like doing anything creatively today – there’s too much other stuff I need to do”. And what happens is that you don’t feel like doing anything at all! Hence, if we set the right intention for the day and start our morning routine in meaningful way, which can influence the tone even for the weak ahead - it’s worth a try to do something in the morning that can boost your creativity and get your productive flow running.

For me it is to have a fruit bowl in the morning, followed by a half an hour yoga session. I never skip breakfast, but sometimes I’m just too lazy (I admit! :) ) to get on my yoga mat and start stretching, but even in those mornings I try to convince myself how good I will feel afterwards – energetic and motivated.

There are few simple, yet effective exercises we can apply and practice in our daily routine, which can help us to cultivate that creativity spark and productive flow.

If we don’t do what helps us to start our day right, the whole day can be a waste of time and energy.

The next exercise I’m suggesting will help you to figure out what’s important to you and how to incorporate that in your productive day:

1. Describe what your typical morning looks like: what you do, how you do it; estimate the time between getting up and starting your work day (half an hour, hour, two hours?). Write everything: how you feel, what you do, what you like about it, what you don’t like about it. Write it in a form of free writing or you can write a poem – it doesn’t matter: just get it out what’s on your mind.
2. Now, turn the page and try to remember what the morning of your exquisitely productive day looked like: what you did, how you felt, what was essential for that productive day – write everything down.
3. Compare: is there anything missing in your typical morning routine comparing to one of the extremely productive day? Are you getting enough sleep? Do you need extra help around house errands? Do you skip your workout? Notice that one key element and think of ways to incorporate more of that in your typical mornings. Don’t try to change everything, just one thing – start small and see how that affects your productivity.

Being mindful about your morning routine and applying small changes can help us get those small increments in our productivity that can turn our day from boring to fabulous.